With the aim to conserve and rejuvenate the river Ganga, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Uttar Pradesh on Monday inaugurated a new state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant of 10 MLD capacity in Varanasi.
According to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is ensuring that a wide network of sewage treatment plants is set up to tap the flow of dirty water into the Ganga, so as to ensure the “nirmalta” (cleanliness) and “aviralta” (easy flow) of the holy river.
The Namami Gange Mission is emphasizing the construction of such sewage treatment plants that can meet the requirements of the next 10-15 years, as well as rejuvenation of the entire flow area of the Ganges instead of just a few cities and towns. The Ministry said the sewage treatment plant at Ramnagar in Varanasi is one of the first of its kind plant that is built on the latest A2O (Anaerobic-Anoxic-Anoxic) technology. The special feature of this plant with 10 MLD capacity is that the polluted water will be treated with modern and advanced equipment from different countries and only treated water will now fall into the Ganga River.
The foundation stone of the sewage treatment plant was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 12, 2018. A total of Rs 72.91 crore has been spent on its construction. With the opening of this plant, there will be a complete stoppage on the contaminated water falling into the Ganga from a total of five drains of Varanasi.
The Ministry of Jal Shakti said the project takes care of the operation and maintenance of the sewage treatment plant for the next 15 years. Filters imported from abroad have been installed for the plant which will purify the contaminated water. This purified water will be released into the Ganga through the main pumping station. Some other equipment, including the main pumping station, has been imported from abroad so that the contaminated water can be treated in advanced ways.
Notably, Varanasi is the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Besides the sewage treatment plant, PM Modi on Monday also inaugurated eight holy kunds (ponds) in Varanasi. These kunds include Kalaha, Dudhiya, Lakshmi, Pahariya, Panchkosi, Kabir, Rewa and BakhariaKunds. The conservation and beautification work of these ponds has been done under the National Mission for Clean Ganga through ‘Clean Ganga Fund’.
According to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, these kunds are traditional man-made water bodies, which act as important sources of drinking water, rainwater harvesting, and groundwater recharge for the region. Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are slated for early next year.
